Max Christie returns home to L.A. … as a visitor with the Mavericks

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Mavericks guard Max Christie drives around Rockets forward Dillon Brooks during a game on Feb. 8 in Dallas. (LM Otero / Associated Press)

This wasn’t the first time Max Christie stood on this court, under the Lakers’ championship banners and its legendary players’ retired jerseys. It wasn’t the first time he basked under the soft, golden lighting bouncing off the Lakers’ logo. It wasn’t the first time he saw the ball swish through the net under the same roof where Kobe Bryant, whose sneakers he wears, did it so many times.

No, Christie had done all of that before. Just this time, he was doing it as a Dallas Maverick.

Christie returned to the building where he began and built his blossoming NBA career, where he worked himself from a second-round draft pick into one of the league’s top young guards, as the Mavericks held a shootaround ahead of Tuesday’s game with the Lakers.

“I didn’t expect to be as, not emotional, but just to feel the feeling that I felt,” Christie said. “Just coming back here and a lot of memories in this place, a lot of memories in this city. It’s cool to be back though. It feels good to be here.”

The Lakers’ shocking trade for Luka Doncic this month sent out Anthony Davis and Christie. Davis, who was injured in his first game as a Maverick, also was back inside Crypto.com Arena for an individual workout. In his absence, Chrsite’s been given a long runway as sort of the Mavericks’ face of this trade, averaging 15.3 points in his first eight games.

“I just feel very invested for the rest of my life in his career,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said Monday. “And he’s someone who, throughout our time together, was given more opportunity and became someone who starred in his role. He has a lot of freedom in Dallas that, frankly, he didn’t have here. At some point, he would have had it here, but I’m really happy to see him succeeding.”

Read more: ‘Dogfight for playoff seeding’: How the Lakers are preparing for the wars to come

Christie said he returned without any bad feelings for the organization that traded him.

“They really took good care of me, and I appreciate them a…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/max-christie-returns-home-l-211128157.html

Author : LA Times

Publish date : 2025-02-25 21:11:00

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